To all those that care about student’s mobile phone access at school, 

The Ministerial policy- under section 5.2.1 (2) (b) of the Education and Training Reform act 2006 (Vic), states that students who have a mobile phone at school must have it switched off and stored securely from the first bell to the last bell of the school day. This act became a legislation and was fully enforced in 2020. This has brought many difficulties with it causing issues around emergencies, mental health and contact with parents and guardians. Brought in to reduce cyberbullying and distractions in the classroom, an Australian study was done which showed that 99% of children who were cyber bullied were also bullied face to face, this means that not having phones at school doesn’t reduce the levels of bullying. The Victorian Government thought this would improve academic results of students, but that will not happen if students do not have the access to the online resources they need. 

Students need access to their mobile phones during school hours to give them the ability to have the same learning opportunities as every other student. Some students do not have the same level of access to a laptop to be able to research and work online. In Victorian households, nearly 33% of the lowest income families do not have access to laptops for their children. Most schools are doing more and more work online, but this only works if everyone has access. Over 60% of Victorian schools do not provide laptops or iPads for their students. At Seymour College, a Victorian state school that is already in a lower income area, is estimated to have roughly 375 year 7-10 students that only have access to roughly 60 laptops at any one time. These laptops are booked most of the time and on the rare occasion they are available, most of the laptops are damaged or flat. Of the 687 students enrolled at Seymour College in 2023, 56% of them were already in the bottom quarter compared with average Australian Socioeconomic Status as per the MySchool website, meaning they have low income and are disadvantaged. To give these students the best chance they can have, they need to be supplied with the tools they need to have the best education they can possibly get. Once students have access to their phones at school, students can search anything they need to quickly instead of relying on others. Students are forced to waste so much valuable learning time just finding a laptop that actually works, to search one simple piece of information, these students could be learning so much more if they could just quickly search on their phone. Students should have access to their much-needed phones, so they have more chances to learn and participate in educational activities. 

Mobile phones are a necessity, students must have their phones on them at all times in case of an emergency, either at home or school. Emergencies can occur at anytime and can be very stressful. If an emergency was to occur at school and students were not able to access their phones in their lockers, parents and students wouldn’t be able to contact each other and this would cause unhappy and worried parents who are stressing because they can’t contact their children and Students that are stressing because they don’t exactly know what’s going to happen. Children just like adults, need their phones in an emergency. This may be as; communication, access to information, safety features or emergency notifications. In 2023, there were close to 300 bomb threats in Victorian schools, these situations could have been dealt with better if students had their phones on them during school hours. Many parents need to contact their children during school hours whether it is to tell them about an incident that has occurred, to check in with them or to talk to them about something the students don’t feel comfortable telling another adult. Students must be allowed access to their mobile phones at all times as a safety precaution. 

After the recent Covid-19 pandemic, there are so many children who have developed mental health issues. In the previous 12 months, it has been estimated that 1 in 5 Australians, aged 16-85 have experienced a ‘mental disorder’ and 1 in 7 children and adolescents have experienced mental illness. Giving students the ability to access their phones at school will mean, that they can access the resources and contacts they need to deal with their stresses, anxiety disorders and other disorders they may be dealing with. Most students don’t feel comfortable telling any adult about their struggles, so they have their trusted adult who they trust and feel comfortable talking to. Students need their phones to be able to contact their trusted person at anytime they need to. The government can create as many resources to help children and adolescents with their mental health but only a small amount of them will actually use the resources. Students will be able to deal with their struggles better with access to their phones all the time. 

We need The Hon. Ben Carroll, the education minister of Victoria to change the Ministerial policy- under section 5.2.1 (2) (b) of the Education and Training Reform act 2006 (Vic), to allow students to have access to their mobile phones during school hours. This will give students the ability to access the educational resources they need to achieve the best results they can, contact the people the students need to contact in an emergency, and help so many children with mental health difficulties.